Skiers with school age children - how do you deal with price/availability issues?

This has only just become an issue for us as DS1 started school in Sept. This year we're pulling him out for a week to go skiing, but I'm just wondering how other families cope with the high prices, lack of availability, and crowds of peak weeks. So:

- Do you book really early - like a year or more in advance? - Do you always go back to the same place, thereby getting first dibs on peak weeks? - Do you go at Christmas, which has availability, but isn't ideal with small DC due to gifts and grandparents, etc.- Do you think 'Sod it' and pull them out of school for a week?

I'm driving myself crazy trying to work out what we should do in 2014. The peak weeks of new year and Feb half-term are already booked up for places that take early bookings and I'm a bit scared to book SC in case we can't get childcare (which we need for six days for DC2).

what a smug and unhelpful post 78bunion! lucky you being able to afford school holiday prices!

we've always shopped around, there are some early booking deals to be had.

our problem is that we ski with friends who have virtually unlimited budgets. I have booked Mark Warner this year (taking kids out of school for 2.5 days before Easter) - am hoping they will join us. But if they don't, it will be because they wanted to spend more, which we really cannot afford to.....